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Phoenix, Ciara & More Best Music Videos of the Week (VIDEO)

The guys of Fall Out Boy escape straitjackets. Ciara and Nicki Minaj get twerking. Watch video of the most entertaining, breathtaking, and bizarre music videos released this week.

In this week’s top music video picks, we take a trip through childhood rebellion, bikini camerawomen, and escaping straight jackets. From hip-hop to electronic and indie rock, with artists like Fall out Boy and Phoenix, see which music videos are becoming viral.

Issues: “Hooligans”

The band is in a stylishly dirty warehouse, and the video is intercut with scenes of friends hanging out during the summer. It’s sure to fill viewers with nostalgia, doubly so if they happened to skateboard and surf in their youth. The video was made with extras rounded up when the hard-rocking band put out a fan casting call, and it was filmed in Los Angeles.

Ciara: “I’m Out” featuring Nicki Minaj

One part Michael Jackson, one part twerking. That’s the visual style of Ciara’s newest music video featuring Nicki Minaj. It’s a bouncy, thumping breakup song that takes you to the future and back.

Pixies: “Bagboy”

Beloved alt rockers the Pixies return after their last album, 1991’s Trompe le Monde, with “Bagboy,” a steady rock anthem that intertwines the Pixies’ trademark harsh crooning with melodic vocals. Kim Deal chose not to stick with the Pixies, but someone with a similar voice picks up the softer parts. The video, another ode to childhood, seems to revel in the joy of destruction. A boy breaks plates, sets off colored gas in his house, takes a bath in Froot Loops, and generally does everything a kid with free rein would want to do.

Phoenix: “Trying to Be Cool”

Seldom do bands put in this much effort into looking cool. The video is composed of a number of random scenes that were amazingly all shot with two cameras in one live, long continuous take. A countdown in every shot dictates how long that scene will be on screen, and in some shots the second camera crew is seen rushing to get into place. Toward the end it’s clear that one of the crews is all girls in bikinis.

Fantasia: “Without Me” featuring Kelly Rowland, Missy Elliott

The former American Idol winner’s powerhouse voice is backed by a plinking, minimal beat that goes with the smoky, minimal video. All the women in this video play up subtle sexiness between colored neon, film noir lighting, and sexy silhouettes. It’s a smooth R&B jam the way only ladies would envision it.

P!nk: “True Love” featuring Lily Allen

P!nk is back with a video that alternates between comic-style, bright pop-art segments; concert footage; and subdued domestic scenes. It looks like the rocker wants to showcase all sides of her life. Lily Allen shows up briefly to angrily chop up vegetables.

Fall Out Boy: “Alone Together”

The band members are seduced and tortured by women and girls while tied to chairs in strange set pieces that include a church and a mock-up of a red carpet. There’s also a mechanism that measures levels of evil. In the greater context of a story called “The Young Blood Chronicles” (the video is part four of 11), this might be some kind of daring escape from the forces of scantily clad women and annoying children. Even without the background info, it’s still a doozy to watch.